Heart on the Sleeve
by Aiko Isari
Summary: [Light of the Sun sidestory] "How did you know I could love?" Before the Digital World, Sora receives a curious gift from a fellow fourth-grader. It's a shame she just can't remember it.


_**A/N:** _Hi! Warning, this is really not meant to be shipping. It can be interpreted as shipping, but it's not, only about as much as the hints of the original canon. You don't really need to read Light to understand this, just know that Hikari and Taichi are swapped ages. It does help bring a little context into the main story. But only a little. XD Enjoy everybody

Note: Written for the Non-Flash Bingo challenge, prompt 665:

"My need has frayed with time; you said it would./It has; I can walk again" Vikram Seth

* * *

Heart on the Sleeve

"W-What?"

Yagami Hikari shrugs and smiles at her. "Like I said, here!"

She's holding a simple chocolate heart, wrapped in a rather unassuming plastic bag tied with a red ribbon.

Sora stares at her again, rather flabbergasted. "But, um, well that's-" She stops, fidgets, and watches Hikari smile, careless, chipper. That's a Yagami for you. She doesn't freak out in embarrassment, or look disheartened. She just waits for the acceptance and/or denial.

Sure, it's Valentine's Day. But girls go around giving chocolates to _boys_ they like, not girls... sometimes. Sora had always thought that was for middle schoolers. The two of them were a few steps too far away from that sort of thing.

Again, when has she known Yagami Hikari to care? Never. It's been like this since she had seen the girl dropping her little brother off at soccer club, and it would probably always be that way.

Still, Hikari waits, endless patience, endless calm, and she's torn between cringing and saying no, or blushing and saying yes. Sora feels people's eyes upon her and flushes anyway. There are whispers because everyone is confused, herself included.

"Sora-san?" Hikari is leaning over her now, still smiling. The expression's a tiny bit playful. "You don't have to take it if you don't want to."

"Ah-" Crap. Stall, Takenouchi, stall! "Um... why me?"

Hikari frowns now, blinking, and Sora hopes that she has stumped the other girl long enough for her to avoid the possibility of accepting the sweet until after school, where there will be less eyes and less pressure.

Unfortunately, she is half-right. "That's a secret." The girl winks, and it's a little conspiratorial now, like there's a big joke the two of them are supposed to know and Sora looks around, feeling hopelessly out of the loop.

The brunette steps back, as if she's really just noticed that they are being stared at and, based on the grin on her face, finds it horribly entertaining. Hikari sighs. "This got all theatrical." She plops the heart on the desk and grins. "Take it, and I'll tell you after school, okay? I swear." Before Sora can actually nod, the bell rings and Hikari heads back to her classroom.

Everyone else is cleaning up and taking their seats, but Sora is flushing red.

What was _that_ supposed to mean?

…

"Why are you up a tree?"

"_Ssh!_"

Hikari is now up a tree. This is strange; she's normally not nearly this... impulsive or outgoing unless she finds it a safe thing to do. But she seems almost excited at the prospect of... what?

Then Sora hears the telltale sign of a little boy's voice calling "Eleven! Twelve!"

Sora can't help it. She giggles. Taichi. Of course. That explains everything. Or at least the tree. Sora still wants to know what the chocolate is about.

Does Hikari see her as a boy?

That wouldn't bother her so much, really. Her mother wants her to be a girl and ladylike and... well, nothing that she loves to be. In that, Hikari is lucky. Sora has never seen Hikari's parents to want her to be much of anything, and she seems to be happy for it. But she also sometimes appears as wild and chain-breaking as she does focused and dutiful. She's a paradox and unrepentant and...

Not that Sora would remember thinking so later on, but she was also a lot of _fun._

"Come on up. If Taichi catches me, I have to get him a candy bar. He's already had three cookies!" Hikari pitches her whisper to sound terrified, but it tapers off with a small giggle. Sora, however, knows how the younger Yagami tends to get with _one _cookie. (They never did find that soccer ball.) No wonder Hikari-chan was up a tree. Of course, that begs the question why she has to do it too, but Sora shrugs and goes along with it. It's not that high up.

Sitting there, Sora watches Hikari swing her legs back and forth for a moment, humming what must be a bad case of earworm. She pauses, thinks of the words for a moment, and finally settles on, "So."

"So... what?" Hikari hums.

Sora glances at her. "The chocolate heart?"

"Oh. That."

Sora sweatdrops. Did she forget?

"Taichi asked me to do it." Hikari's swinging legs slow and she adjusts the pink clip in her hair. It's a pretty clip, Sora realizes, plain but fitting. "He said you were looking sad at practice yesterday, and I thought it would make you feel better to have chocolate. Wrong day, I know." She grins. "Was it good?"

It was melting in her pocket actually. She draws it out and pauses. "Actually... would you like to share it?"

Hikari smiles. "The pleasure would be mine."

She snaps the heart in half, ignoring any symbolism (because there _isn't _any) and quietly licks the melted drops off her fingers. Hikari chews thoughtfully and Sora finds herself swinging her legs now, thinking.

_Hikari-chan seems... much more capable of love than I am, _she can't help but think. _We haven't talked since... second grade but she is willing to do a nice thing because her brother asked her to. That's nice of her..._

Hikari looks at her. "You look sad again." Her expression remains sanguine but her eyes seem to ripple.

Sora pauses. "Do I really?" She receives a small, but earnest nod. "I... can't help it, I guess."

"You're better than you think." Hikari slowly lowers herself from the tree. "You look like you don't feel very proud of yourself, but you should be. Even if you aren't who everyone wants you to be, you should be happy while you can be. Things can change, after all." She smiles. "Right?"

Sora pulls herself down. "What are you talking about?"

Hikari shrugs. "I'm not sure, but... I think you're stronger than you think you are. So... buck up! After all," she smiles like a cat. "Taichi thinks your smile is cute."

"He what?!"

Hikari just giggles, and doesn't answer.


End file.
